1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the extravascular treatment of blood cells with diethyl ether to strip away the viral envelope of an HIV cell attached to a macrophage and dissolve the lipid layer of the HIV cell thereby to destroy the HIV cell.
2. Description of the Related Art including Information disclosed under 37 CFR .sctn..sctn.1.97-1.99
Heretofore the extravascular or extracorporeal treatment of blood cells for treating blood for removing, altering, effecting or killing a substance carried in the blood for effecting a therapeutic procedure intended to ameliorate a condition a patient is suffering from, have been proposed.
For example, the Edelson U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,689 teaches a method and system for externally treating the blood of a cancer patient with radiation for reducing the population of undesirable autoreactive antibodies; and the Hayden U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,260 teaches a method and apparatus for extravascular treatment of red blood cells with ultrasound to inactivate sodium, potassium, ATPase enzyme.
The method and system of the present invention differ from the method and apparatus referred to above by providing for the treatment of a patient's blood with diethyl ether vapor in an extravascular or extracaporeal treatment procedure for the purpose of killing HIV cells attached to macrophages in the blood.